Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to a reel on a crop harvesting header, and more particularly to a mechanism that varies the angle of tines on the reel as the reel rotates.
Description of Related Art
Crop harvesting headers include a cutter bar and a reel utilizing a plurality of tines of fingers for controlling movement of the crop in the area over the cutter bar. A crop harvesting header can be used in a variety of different crops with varying conditions such as green, tough, lying down, wet, or tangled. Desirably, the reel needs to be able to function in all these crop situations to feed the crop uniformly into the harvester.
Typically, the reel is rotatable about an axis generally parallel to the cutter bar and has a plurality of reel tubes spaced around the axis of a center tube. Each reel tube has several tines projecting generally radially outward from the reel axis that interact with the crop through different zones around the reel. The tines first need to pick up any crop that is laying down and push any crop that is standing across the cutter bar. Then, once the crop has been cut and is being carried onto the platform, the tines need to release the crop so that it doesn't carry the crop out of the header. Finally, the reel tines need to flip over as they go around the top of the reel so that crop does not wrap on the reel tubes. Each reel tube typically pivots about its axis parallel to the reel axis so as to vary the angle of the tines about the tube axis as the reel rotates.
It would be desirable to improve the pivotal movement of the tube and thus the tine path through the different tine path zones.